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Stanley Baum, Radiology

caption: Stanley BaumStanley (Stan) Baum, GME’61, an emeritus professor of radiology in the Perelman School of Medicine and chair of the department for over 20 years, passed away peacefully on October 15. He was 92.

Born in the Bronx, New York, Dr. Baum attended the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Utrecht in Holland, earning an MD in 1957. He continued his medical career at Penn’s School of Medicine, where he completed his residency in 1961. He remained at Penn throughout the 1960s as an associate professor of radiology. During this decade, he made his name as a pioneer in the field of interventional radiology, speaking at conferences across the world and holding visiting professorships at the MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas, where he lectured on the role of angiography in the detection of gastrointestinal hemorrhage, and at Harvard Medical School, where he lectured on cardiovascular radiology.

In 1975, Dr. Baum became the fifth chair of the department of radiology. As chair, he contributed to the development of magnetic resonance imaging and initiated the first hospital-based magneticresonance imaging program in the nation. While at Penn, he developed radiological techniques for studying diseases of the blood vessels and for locating sites of internal abdominal bleeding, research that led to the non-operative treatment of gastrointestinal bleeding. Dr. Baum served as department chair until 1996, building the department’s reputation during his tenure. In addition, in 1977, Dr. Baum was named the Eugene P. Pendergrass Professor of Radiology. Dr. Baum served on Penn’s Faculty Senate Executive Committee and on the University Council (notably the Council’s Committee on Honorary Degrees) during the 1980s and 1990s, and also served on several Penn-wide ad-hoc committees, task forces, and working groups. Dr. Baum retired in 2013 and took emeritus status. In 2001, Penn established the Stanley Baum Professorship of Radiology in his honor.

Outside of Penn, Dr. Baum was an active radiological scholar. He was a founding member of the Society for Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology and served on the Philadelphia advisory board of Physicians for Social Responsibility. In 1985, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine), and three years later, he was appointed to its medicine committee. In 1998, he played a critical role in the formation of a medical imaging institute at the National Institutes of Health. He received gold medals from several learned societies around the U.S., including the Radiological Society of North America and the American College of Radiology.

Dr. Baum is survived by his wife of 64 years, Jeanne Masch Baum; his children, Richard Baum, Laura Baum Holland, Carol Baum Gupta; his son-in-law, Kris Gupta; his grandchildren, Joseph Holland, Emily Holland Carpino (Jesse Carpino), Sarah Holland, Zachary Baum, William Baum, Sophia Baum, Sam Baum, Becca Gupta, Caleb Gupta; and his great-grandson Jack George Carpino.

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